PM bats for pvt parternships in infra, unveils new terminal

Terming India's infrastructure need as "enormous" which government alone cannot fulfill, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said partnerships with private sector will be encouraged in this sector so that it is no longer a serious constraint limiting the economic growth.
Inaugurating a plush integrated terminal of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport here which cost Rs 9,800 crore, he said, "India's infrastructure needs are enormous. The infrastructure deficit in the country is considered as a serious constraint limiting our rate of economic growth.
"And, therefore, we need to work doubly hard to bridge this deficit."
Noting that the government alone could not make "very large investment required to build world-class infrastructure in the country", he said "we have been encouraging partnerships with the private sector" and construction of this terminal was "yet another shining example of successful execution of large infrastructure projects under the Public Private Partnership model".

Government planned to develop and operationalise 50 more airports across the country in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, he said, adding that the last ten years have seen "outstanding development of civil aviation infrastructure in our country."
Regarding the long-pending Navi Mumbai airport project, he said "I would also like to mention here that we have finally resolved all pending issues with regard to the Navi Mumbai Airport. The Government of Maharashtra, in collaboration with the Central Government, is now moving ahead on the work for this new airport."

The swanky four-storey glass marvel, whose design has been inspired by a dancing peacock, has come up at a huge investment of Rs 9,800 crore as against initial estimate of Rs 7,452 crore. Actual operations from the new terminal are likely to begin in another few weeks.

Clearly signalling the readiness to launch operations of the superjumbo Airbus A-380s in India, the Prime Minister said "with the commissioning of Terminal-2, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Airport has become code F compliant and is now ready to handle A-380 type aircraft operations."
Recognising that the government alone could not invest to meet the massive infrastructure needs, he said several policy and regulatory reform measures to encourage growth, private participation and investment in the civil aviation sector already existed.
"We are determined to ensure that the civil aviation sector grows rapidly despite challenges such as rising fuel costs and infrastructure bottlenecks," he said.